Fired Up Squat + Upper Body Workout

byJen DeCurtinsonMarch 21, 2014

Welcome to Friday…the fired up edition!

What am I so fired up about?

First, squats! I LOVE SQUATS! My clients know they most likely won’t get through a workout with me without doing some type of squats and push ups. They are two of my favorite movements ever due to all of their awesome benefits. Today I have a challenging new workout to share with you that’s all about squatting with lots of upper body strength work alternated in between squat sets.

Fired Up Squat + Upper Body Workout

Behold…the Fired Up Squat Workout. This workout will have you at 150 reps of squat variations by the end of the three rounds. I have programmed a variety of squat movements with upper body strength exercises between for recovery and to make it an upper AND lower body workout. I’m all about efficiencies whenever possible and I find that many of my clients (especially my females) don’t want to separate lower and upper body days and would rather get in 2-3 really good full-body workouts each week. The upper body work I’ve programmed will hit everything…chest, upper back, triceps, shoulders and biceps. Since the sets of upper body work are pretty short at just 10 reps, be sure to use a dumbbell weight that challenges you.

Most of these exercises are pretty basic but please let me know if you have any specific questions. You can find me demo some of them including the bent over row, triceps extension, sumo squat (leave out the high pull part in the video) and hammer curls in a video in this post.

As always, feedback is appreciated if you try it!

What else am I fired up about?

The Fire Starter Sessions

The Fire Starter Sessions. I have written about this book by Danielle LaPorte in many posts (this, this, this) and I’ve gifted it to so many people. I continue to sing its praises and I’m currently listening to it again on Audible. Every time I listen to it I get something new from it. It’s been playing non-stop on my runs and in my car the past couple of weeks.

Watch Danielle’s “A Credo for Making It Happen” and tell me you’re not fired up!

Share this:

Thanks for an awesome workout! I am going to do this on Monday morning. Love starting my week off with a killer strength workout.

I would love to listen to that book. I sometimes have trouble reading more “researchy” books like that (I could not get through Daring Greatly even though I really appreciated and enjoyed the principles it was sharing) but I think listening to them would be good as I love listening to podcasts.

I was reading Desire Map before I got my reading assignments for YTT. love her voice as an author and would love to read the firestarter sessions. I’ve got to get an audible account because I’ve been blowing through books and podcasts lately.

Squats dont fire me up! I want them to so badly because I’ve seen the benefits. I am doing them 2 times a week to build myself up! Thanks for posting this! Every little bit of motivation really helps!!! 🙂

I’d love a copy of the firestarters 🙂 I’m at such a different point in my life and career where I’m optimistic and hopeful and just open to change…but it does get difficult sometimes and a little boost like this would definitely go a long way on the bad days!

hey jenn – i definitely think you should squat because it’s a functional movement that you’ll have to perform for your entire life. i would recommend that you start with bodyweight squats only and at low reps and then build up strength to use external weight. any pain, STOP! and make sure to have someone check out your squat form. you can email me a short video if you’d like! 🙂

Danielle’s video definitely got me fired up!! What great incentives and motivation to really learn to love your life and what you do! 🙂 Thanks for sharing that – bout to go MAKE IT HAPPEN on this beautiful Saturday! 🙂

As I’m making a pretty big life change (back in school for a second undergrad degree right now) and spending a lot of time in my car commuting I would love to listen to The Fire Starter Sessions via Audible!

Did this workout today. I added weight to the air squats and bottom halves, but thought it was a good workout. I always choose upper body weightlifting (which I love) over lower body, so this was great motivation for me!

I'm Jen and I'm a personal trainer, yoga teacher and the author of Ultimate Plank Fitness and The Complete Guide to Yoga Inversions. I live in Charlotte, NC and share daily updates about food, fitness, yoga and life with two golden retrievers! You can reach me at jen@peanutbutterrunner.com.